Peter Chiodini1
1UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) Malaria Reference Laboratory
The advent of novel, targeted immunosuppression, transplantation and aggressive anti-cancer chemotherapy created a population of individuals with increased susceptibility to infection. Whilst opportunistic bacterial, viral and fungal infections are widespread and familiar to general microbiologists, parasites are less so, with the exception of Toxoplasma. Although toxoplasmosis is a cosmopolitan infection, many other parasites for example Leishmania, occupy defined geographical ranges. Others, such as Acanthamoeba, may be widely distributed, but are seen only rarely as the cause of invasive disease. Both these scenarios make early diagnosis, so important in the immunocompromised if a good outcome is to be obtained, difficult to achieve. This lecture examines the ways in which parasites affect those who are immunocompromised, how they present, and how they might be diagnosed more promptly.
